Democrats jump on Attorney General Barr for defending President Trump before report release

By Michael McAuliff

New York Daily News|

Apr 18, 2019 | 12:23 PM

Attorney General William Barr speaks about the release of a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report during a news conference on Thursday at the Department of Justice in Washington. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

WASHINGTON — The Mueller Report is a “road map” for Congress’s investigation of President Trump that could lead to impeachment, Rep. Jerry Nadler said Thursday, declaring he will subpoena all the evidence that went into creating the document.

Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) also both announced they wanted Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify before their committees before the end of May.

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Nadler (D-N.Y.) insisted — as Democratic leaders have since the special counsel was appointed — that it was too soon to say what Congress would do in the end.

But he made clear one option is going down a path that could end with Trump getting booted from office.

President Donald Trump gestures while speaking at a Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride event in the East Room of the White House on Thursday in Washington. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

"That's one possibility. There are others," Nadler said when asked if impeachment was on the table. "We obviously have to get to the bottom of what happened, and take whatever actions seem necessary."

There are significant portions of the 448-page Mueller Report that are redacted, and Nadler said Congress needs to see all of it because it offers him and other lawmakers direction on where to take their probes.

"I think it was probably written with the intent of providing Congress a road map, as other reports have in the past," Nadler said. "With the redactions and others, Attorney General [William] Barr seems to be trying to frustrate that intent."

Schiff echoed Trump, pointing specifically to 10 times when the report suggests Trump tried to interfere in the investigation.

"Those acts of obstruction of justice, whether they are criminal or not, are deeply alarming in the president of the United States," Schiff said. "And it's clear Special Counsel Mueller wanted the Congress to consider the repercussions and consequences."

"It is clear the special counsel believed no one was above the law, and that includes the president of the United States," Schiff said.

Nadler has said repeatedly that much more complete information has been shared with Congress in the past, including from investigations of former Presidents Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.

Nadler, Schiff and other Democrats suggested that Congress was being forced to take dramatic steps not only because Barr has not cooperated with Congress, but Barr's actions so far suggest he is hiding information that is damning to President Trump.

They pointed to Barr's unsubstantiated assertion earlier this month that the Obama administration "spied" on the Trump campaign. And they said the press event Barr held Thursday before the report was even released was purely an attempt to spin a phony narrative that Trump is in the clear.

“Even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report outlines disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice and other misconduct," Nadler said, pointing to the report's finding of "substantial evidence" that Trump tried to hinder the probe into his campaign and his actions.

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"The report makes clear that the President refused to be interviewed by the Special Counsel and refused to provide written answers to follow-up questions; and his associates destroyed evidence relevant to the Russia investigation," Nadler said.

It's Nadler's Judiciary Committee, though, where any impeachment process would begin. If Nadler decides that Trump may have committed impeachable offenses, he committee would draw up articles of impeachment, debate them, then vote to send them to the House floor.

Such a process would be difficult. In the case of Richard Nixon, Democrats started calling for impeachment in the summer of 1972, but it took two years before the Judiciary Committee voted out articles of impeachment, including obstruction of justice.

If the current administration refuses to answer Nadler's subpoena, it would slow down any probes, and perhaps tie Congress's efforts up in the courts.

Nixon's approval ratings were in the mid-20 percent range, and Republicans were breaking ranks. Bill Clinton's approval numbers were much better, and many analysts believe the GOP's impeachment case against him actually improved Clinton's standing and boosted his re-election.

Trump's approval has hovered in the low 40s, and Republicans were not showing signs of abandoning him.

Instead, he praised Democrats who expressed faith in Mueller’s “integrity and ability,” and agreed with Barr’s pre-cooked conclusions.

"The Special Counsel’s 22-month investigation found no Americans conspired with Russia to interfere in our elections and Democrats’ accusations of criminal obstruction are unfounded,” Collins said. “I look forward to examining the mountain of facts supporting the principal conclusions the attorney general and deputy attorney general shared last month: no collusion, no obstruction.”